Sentimental Journey

[Ralph Howard]

Tom Stanton writes:
> 
> At 10:56 AM 3/28/97 -0600, Christopher Gonzales wrote:
> >Hi folks,
> [big snap!]
> >Water Rockets by ???
> >You fill them with water, pump in some air, pull a little trigger, a
> >'fwoosh!' off into the sky it would go.  One rocket had a little 'Space
> >Shuttle' attached that was supposed to separate at Brennschlauss, and glide
> >safely to earth, but usually the little glider hung on 'til it came
> >crashing down, breaking free when it hit the ground.  Not too good for
> >those shuttle pilots.  I think they stopped making this one after the
> >Challenger disaster.
> 
> Once was the proud owner of same, a clear bright red model with fins bent
> to created a twisting ascent. The 'chute never worked. Dreamed of building
> a liquid fuel model rocket but never moved beyond water...
> 
> Tom 
> 

The high point of my graduate career was modifying these rockets so
that the wimpy little pump was replaced with a hose to heavy duty
bicycle pump.  It was then possible pump the things up to the point
that the air pressure would come close to supporting my weight (about
180lb at the time).  A non-academic friend (who at least in terms of
temperament could serve as a model of a scaled down Pig Bodine) and I
would take it to North Hollywood Park during working and school hours
and attract small but select groups of LA's never do wells (who for
the most part would fit in well the characters in Cormac McCarthy's
_Suttree_).

During a recent move I came across both the pump and some of the
rockets and plane to spend at least part of the summer break seeing if
it still works and if the park loiters in Columbia SC are up to west
cost standards (and I have every reason to believe they will be).


Ralph age 46 (and about 30 at the time the Rocket Engineering Project).

-- 
Ralph Howard                    Phone:  (803) 777-2913 
Department of Mathematics       Fax:    (803) 777-3783 
University of South Carolina    e-mail: howard at math.sc.edu
Columbia, SC 29208 USA          http://www.math.sc.edu/~howard/